AUGUSTA — A city man pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful trafficking in heroin in a case in which a neighbor tipped off police about suspicious activity at the Newland Avenue home.
Michael Fry, 47, was ordered to serve an initial four days of a four-year sentence, and the remainder was suspended while he spends two years on probation.
The offense occurred March 2, 2017, and police arrested Fry about three weeks later, saying it was the result of an investigation of several months.
At the time, a news release from the Augusta Police Department said they and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency officers located several grams of heroin with a street value of $1,000 when they searched his home.
“This investigation continues to highlight our department’s ability to remove illegal drugs from our city with the help of our citizens who are simply not going to stand for this type of behavior,” the release said.
Along with the jail time, Fry was fined $400.
In exchange for pleading guilty to one charge, two others against Fry were dismissed.
The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley, and Fry’s attorney, Lisa Whittier, both recommended the sentence that was imposed by Justice Robert Mullen on Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center.
Sibley said Fry did not have a prior criminal record and that he had a job.
In a separate case, Tyrif J. Cherry, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty to unlawful furnishing of fentanyl May 31 in Augusta.
He was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $400.
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Alisa Ross, said Cherry had no prior criminal record in Maine but had been convicted of drug possession offenses previously in New York, twice being sentenced to a year in jail.
In exchange for the plea, a charge of aggravated furnishing of fentanyl from the same date and place was dismissed.
Ross said Cherry was a passenger acting suspiciously when the vehicle he was riding in was stopped for speeding on Interstate 95.
A dog unit was brought in, the dog indicated Cherry had narcotics on him, and a bag of fentanyl was found in a bag in Cherry’s groin, Ross said.
Whittier, who also represented Cherry, said he had about another month to serve on the sentence.
Mullen told him, “You can’t afford to get in trouble again, at least in Maine.”
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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